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Is your dog’s “car anxiety” really motion sickness?

May 28, 2018 by sharon Leave a Comment

When my dog Barnum was about two years old, he started to become impossible to drive with. About twenty minutes into any car trip, he would pace, drool, and shriek continuously. It was horrible for both of us. He seemed like he was having a panic attack, and nothing I did could soothe him — not chews, not treats, not training, not comforting words. Soon, he started to freak out as soon as he was in the car — before I even turned on the engine.

One day, I mentioned the issue to the behavior consultant I was apprenticing with. She suggested that my dog was actually car sick. That turned out to be the magic answer. That idea had never occurred to me because Barnum didn’t vomit. He seemed to just suddenly “freak out.” Once I took steps to address my dog’s car sickness, it really turned the situation around.

A dog that is motion sick does not always vomit, so signs of motion sickness may be misinterpreted as a behavior issue. These can include

  • Panting
  • Pacing
  • Drooling
  • Whining, panting, or other vocalizations
  • Hunching, lips pulled back, tight facial skin, whites of eyes showing, etc.

Symptoms may start as soon as the car moves or may emerge only after a specific period of time or only on bumpy or windy roads, etc. Some dogs seem fine in the car but after arriving at their destination, refuse food, don’t follow cues, lick their lips, yawn, or act tired. I see this sometimes with dogs in class. If they are given anti-nausea remedies before class or get half an hour to recover from nausea before class starts, they are able to work.

Riding on his thick foam pad, veterinary medications, and in a relaxed down-stay, Barnum can ride comfortably for hours!

Additionally, once a dog has experienced feeling sick in the car (especially repeatedly), she may make an emotional association between feeling ill and being in the car. This can result in anxious-type behavior and refusal to get in the car, etc.

If you suspect your dog has motion sickness, your first step is to speak to your vet to diagnose or rule out a physical cause to a behavior issue. Trial and error is sometimes required. They may suggest Dramamine, Benadryl, ginger, or other remedies. Sometimes the only treatment that works is a prescription medication, such as Cerenia, which is specifically for nausea in dogs.

Adjusting the environment with regard to noise, air, vision, and vibration may also your dog ride more comfortably. In Barnum’s case, what worked the best was to prevent him from looking out the windows. I believe his motion sickness is the result of an inner ear/balance issue that was caused by a year of severe ear infections. For many dogs, putting them in a plastic crate or putting a towel over a metal crate works to block the nauseating visual stimuli. However, putting Barnum in a crate made the situation worse. What has worked the best is having him tethered to a zip line for safety while lying on a thick foam mat that absorbs sound and vibration. To prevent him from looking out the windows, I have him trained to lie down instead of sitting or standing. Different training and environmental options will work for different dogs, depending on their physical and behavioral needs.

Once your dog is physically comfortable, start building a positive association with the car. Start training by rewarding your dog for looking at the car, moving toward the car, jumping in the car, etc. First do this while the car is turned off and all the doors are open, then with all the doors shut (but engine off), then with the car idling in the driveway, before finally taking short trips around the block or to places your dog loves.

Note: Never coerce the dog into the car (tug the leash, scold, etc.), as this tends to make dogs more resistant and suspicious.

Once your dog is happily jumping into the car, it can help to give special treats in the car. Giving a dog a great chew, such as a bully stick or a stuffed Kong, while you read in the front seat is often helpful. Later, a chew can help to keep them from looking out the window, but if the dog is still experiencing an upset stomach or is too anxious to eat, this may backfire. With time, patience, and help from your veterinarian and trainer, your dog can enjoy riding with you again!

Filed Under: Car reactivity, Desensitization and Counterconditioning, Dog body language, Dog Health, Dog training Tagged With: car sickness, motion sickness

Gentle Leader Workshop

February 9, 2017 by sharon Leave a Comment

Head and shoulders of a Golden Retriever wearing a sky blue Gentle Leader -- thin nylon webbing over muzzle and under chin -- with a tennis ball in its mouth

  • Are you afraid to walk your dog on leash — especially on snow or ice?
  • Do you have a big, strong dog?
  • Are you petite, elderly, or disabled?
  • Have you trained your dog to walk nicely on leash, but they still sometimes pull or lunge unpredictably?
  • Are you training your dog as a service dog who must be under control at all times?

If you answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, this workshop is for you.

Tuesday, March 21

7:15 – 8:30 PM

Orange Innovation Center (131 West Main St., Orange, MA 01364)

This one-time workshop is an introduction to the Gentle Leader, a head halter that allows you to have greater control on leash  — without inflicting pain or being punitive. You might have heard of or tried the Gentle Leader or a similar head halter, but if you didn’t introduce it properly — very slowly and positively — your dog may have hated it and refused to walk with it on! Unlike many other pieces of training equipment that you can just put on your dog and go, the Gentle Leader requires careful introduction and proper fitting. However, for many people, it is very well worth doing since it may mean the difference between being able to safely walk their dog or not!

This one-hour workshop will cover

  • Benefits of the Gentle Leader
  • How to teach your dog to wear it happily
  • Fitting tips
  • How to train loose leash walking using the Gentle Leader
  • Written training tips to take home on conditioning your dog to a Gentle Leader

There are two ways to sign up…

You may attend without your dog. You do not have to register, but I’d love to know you’re coming. Drop me a line with the form below, and I’ll send you a reminder a couple of days before the workshop. If you can’t get in touch, that’s OK — just show up!

If you’d like to attend with your dog. We have two working slots available for people who want to practice conditioning their dog to the Gentle Leader with professional assistance. Dogs should be comfortable and friendly with people and other dogs and have been in a group training situation before. You must register in advance for the working slots.

Cost: $10 without a dog; $15 for working spots

Questions? Get in touch!

Yes, I’d like to learn how to use the Gentle Leader with my dog. Please send me a reminder notice.

Filed Under: Desensitization and Counterconditioning, Dog gear, Events, Loose Leash Walking (Heel), or equipment, products, Training Tagged With: harness, head halter, workshop

Open Bar/Closed Bar (Desensitization and Counterconditioning)

August 16, 2016 by sharon 7 Comments

Open Bar/Closed Bar is a great training game to help dogs become more comfortable with things they are reactive, aggressive, or afraid of. It is often used for dogs with handling issues (e.g., uncomfortable with having their collar grabbed), fears of certain types of people (men, people with facial hair, tall people), or reactivity toward objects, such as cars.

Changing your dog’s emotional association to a trigger is a very effective way to influence your dog’s behavior. It takes time, repetition, and carefully following certain rules, explained below.

What is DS/CC?

Desensitization and counterconditioning (DS/CC) is a time-tested method for improving behavior in dogs that have a strong emotional reaction to a trigger. Often this manifests as reactivity (barking, lunging, staring), aggression (growling, snapping, biting), or fearfulness (hiding, trembling, running away).

Counterconditioning means changing the dog’s emotional association with the trigger from negative to positive. To countercondition, we must pair the trigger (at a very low intensity –

Plate with a large grilled steak and a burger. see below) many, many times with something the dog loves. This is usually best accomplished by using lots of tiny pieces of very high-value food (real cooked meat or cheese). The dog comes to feel happy about the trigger because it predicts delicious food.

Desensitization means reducing the dog’s response to the trigger by starting the trigger at such a low level that the dog does not react to it. The dog eventually thinks the trigger is no big deal. For visual triggers, we usually start with it so far away the dog can barely see it. With sound triggers, we start with the sound at such a low volume that the dog can barely hear it.

We must combine DS and CC: If the dog is reacting (barking, hiding, lunging), even if we are feeding high-value food (counterconditioning), the dog is over their threshold of tolerance. We are not using desensitization. In fact, the dog may actually be further sensitized to the trigger.

A Human Example…

cartoon of green smiling snakeImagine you have a phobia of snakes. If I wanted to help you overcome your fears, I would not start by trapping you in a room full of pythons (like Indiana Jones). This would not be DS/CC; it would be “flooding.”

Instead, I would start with showing you a picture of a funny little cartoon snake, and then give you $100. I would repeat that until every time you saw that picture of the cartoon snake, you felt happy.

Then I would show you a picture of a real snake and pay you $100 each time. Eventually, we would start with one small real snake at a distance. And you would be free to stop the training at any point if it felt too uncomfortable for you.

Open Bar/Closed Bar

Pouring_champagneTrainers often refer to this method as “open bar” and “closed bar.” When the dog sees (or hears or feels) the trigger, the bar is open: you feed MANY TREATS, one after the other — treat after treat after treat. As long as the trigger is present, the bar is open, and it’s fantastic! The dog should feel showered with fabulous goodies. It should be dramatic, repetitive, and wonderful.

Equally important is when the trigger goes away. As soon as the dog does not see or perceive the trigger, the bar is closed. Then life is boring. No treats, no praise, no petting, just boring. Over time, the dog notices the dramatic difference between these two situations and starts hoping for the trigger to appear so that the bar will open again!

Once your dog looks delighted by the presence of the trigger, you can make it a tiny bit more intense (bring it closer, make it louder, etc.). But you still must keep the dog below the threshold of reactivity or fear. GO SLOW. It is always better to go slower than to push. Only make the trigger more intense when your dog looks truly happy (wagging tail, eager, happy, relaxed, loose body) to see the trigger. If they are just tolerating it, that’s not good enough.

Why so much repetition? Negative Outweighs Positive

Policeman's waist showing handcuffs, bun, and radioNeuroscientists refer to our brains as having a “negativity bias.” Bad experiences loom much larger than equally good experiences. This is also true for dogs.

Think about how you feel if a policeman pulls you over and gives you a ticket for $200. You may feel angry, scared, or ashamed, and your body responds with a racing heart, sweaty palms, red cheeks, etc. For months after, every time you drive past that spot, you feel tense, possibly angry or worried, your stomach tightens, your jaw clenches. That is a negative emotional association.

Now imagine that every time you drive past that spot, the same police officer pulls you over, smiles, and gives you $100. Logically, he should only have to do that twice to change your feelings about him, right?  But that is not how our brains work. Realistically, it would take several dozen repetitions (thousands of dollars) before your heart would stop racing every time you saw the police officer.

The same is true for our dogs. We must do hundreds of repetitions of good things to change their feelings about a bad thing. They’re not being stubborn. It’s just how brains work!

To do both types of training – planned lessons and “real-life training” – it helps to know how dogs learn. It helps to understand that dogs have two types of learning: emotional learning and learning by consequence. Both play a role how behavior problems develop and how to modify them with training. Both types of learning are taking place all the time and at the same time. Please see our handout on how dogs learn for more information.

Tips for Success

Although the concepts are simple, it can be tricky to do DS/CC correctly:

  • The trigger has to occur first. The trigger must PREDICT good stuff. If your dog is fearful of people, she must first see the person, and then get one treat after another. It is a common mistake to feed before the trigger appears. This is usually not effective and can even make the dog hate or fear treats
  • There must be a noticeable “closed bar” between each “open bar.” If the dog thinks he’s just getting treats and doesn’t notice that the treats only happen when the trigger appears, you are not making the crucial association between trigger and treats
  • Closed bar must mean truly closed bar. Keep it boring – don’t chatter, don’t pet, don’t praise, don’t play, don’t feed. Just stand there watching the paint dry.
  • Increase intensity of the trigger in the smallest increment possible. If the trigger is 20 feet away, and your dog is delighted when it appears, move it 19 feet away. Don’t skip to 10 feet! Likewise, if your dog looks totally happy, relaxed, and playful with fireworks sounds at volume level 1, now train with it at level 2.
  • Do not increase the trigger’s intensity until your dog looks delighted to see the trigger. It’s not enough for your dog just to not be reacting. Your dog must look actively HAPPY every time she sees the trigger. This means loads of repetition.
  • If your dog is making progress, but training feels horribly repetitive, boring, and slow – you’re probably doing it right!

Filed Under: Behavior modification, Desensitization and Counterconditioning, Dog Behavior, Dog training, Fearfulness or anxiety, Reactivity

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